9th Circuit may revive gay marriage in Calif.

2 legal routes considered to limit scope of ruling

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal appeals-court judges Monday seemed headed toward a decision that could reinstate same-sex marriages in California while avoiding a ruling of national sweep that would demand U.S. Supreme Court attention.

The judges for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicated at least two routes that could achieve that goal. One would be a ruling that California, having granted marriage rights to same-sex couples, could not take them away by popular vote.

The other would avoid a decision on the constitutional issues by declaring that gay-marriage opponents lacked legal to standing to appeal a lower court's striking down Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot measure that amended the state constitution.

Ninth Circuit Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Michael Daly Hawkins, Democratic appointees, suggested that Prop. 8 was similar to a Colorado initiative that repealed anti-discrimination laws against gays and that the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned.

The Supreme Court struck down the Colorado measure in a landmark 1996 ruling called Romer vs. Evans, a major victory for gay-rights advocates. The high court said disapproval of gays is not enough to justify such a measure.

The appeals court is hearing a challenge of an August ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who overturned Prop. 8 after hearing testimony at a trial. Walker's ruling has been put on hold pending the appeal.

Opponents of same-sex marriage are expected to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if they lose in the appeals court. Some analysts believe a narrow ruling against Prop. 8 would fare better there than a decision that found gays across the country should be entitled to marry.

Demonstrators from both sides gathered outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco.